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BITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC 
IN HAWAII 



STATEMENTS 

BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON PACIFIC ISLANDS 
AND PORTO RICO, UNITED STATES SENATE 

ON THE BILL 

(S. 1862) 

TO PROHIBIT SELLING OF INTOXICATING BEVERAGES 
IN TERRITORY OF HAWAII 






WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
LUG 



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0'6i IT g 3 J 



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PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII, 



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Friday, December 17, 1909. 

The committee met at 11 o'clock a. m. 

Present : Senators Depew (chairman) , Clapp, Flint, Warner, Thomp- 
son, and Fletcher. 

Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, Ph. D., superintendent of the International 
Reform Bureau and chairman of the Joint Temperance Conference 
Committee; Rev. Edwin C. Dinwiddie, chairman of the Permanent 
Temperance Committee Evangelical Lutheran Church, national elec- 
toral superintendent of the International Order of Good Templars, 
and vice-president of the National Inter-Church Temperance Federa- 
tion; Hon. John G. Woolley, of Honolulu, superintendent of the 
Antisaloon League; Mrs. M. D. Ellis, national legislative superin- 
tendent, Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Mrs. Ella A. Boole, 
of Brooklyn. N. Y., state president Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union; Mrs. Frances W. Graham, of Lockport, vice-president New 
York State Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Miss Marie C. 
Brehm, of Chicago, 111., special lecturer of the General Assembly's 
Permanent Committee on Temperance of the Presbyterian Church in 
the United States; Mrs. Emma Bourne, of Newark, N. J., state presi- 
dent Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Miss Cora Frances 
Stoddard, of Boston, Mass., corresponding secretary of the Scientific 
Temperance Federation; Mrs. Frances E. Beauchamp, of Lexington, 
Ky., state president of the Kentucky Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union; Miss Belle Kearney, of Balfour, Miss., national lecturer for 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Mrs. Minnie L T . Ruther- 
ford, of Magazine, Ark., national superintendent of juvenile courts 
industrial education and antichild labor, Woman's Christian Tempsr- 
ance Union; Rev. George W. Peck, LL. D., of Buffalo, N. Y., district 
superintendent of the International Reform Bureau; Rev. G. L. 
Tufts, Ph. D., district superintendent; Rev. O. R. Miller, of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., district superintendent; Rev. R. C. Miller, of Hartford, 
Conn., district superintendent; Rev. A. S. Gregg, of Cleveland, Ohio, 
district superintendent; Rev. W. S. Winans, of Brooklyn, N. Y., one 
of the secretaries of the International Reform Bureau; Rev. E. B. 
Ryckman, D. D., of Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Rev. W. D. Lukens, 
of Hudson, N. Y. ; Rev. Samuel Zane Batten, D. D., of Lincoln, Nebr., 
representing the Social Service Commission, Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America, and others appeared. 

The Chairman (Senator Depew). Before proceeding with the 
hearing the bill (S. 1862) to prohibit the selling of intoxicating bev- 
erages in the Territory of Hawaii will be made a part of the record : 

The bill, introduced by Senator Johnson, of North Dakota, April 19, 
1909, is as follows: 

3 



4 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

u Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person, 
except agents hereinafter specified, who shall manufacture or sell, 
directly or indirectly, or expose for sale or advertise as for sale in 
said Territory any vinous, malt, or fermented liquors, or any other 
intoxicating beverages of any kind whatsoever, or shall knowingly 
allow such manufacture or sale in any shop, restaurant, hotel, drug 
store, or building or premises which he owns or controls, or who shall 
give away any intoxicating drink except in his own private residence, 
shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars and 
by imprisonment for not less than one month nor more than five 
years, with forfeiture to the Territory of all liquors and bar-room fix- 
tures and furniture found on the premises; and it shall be the duty 
of district attorneys and of all executive officers to prosecute all 
violations of this act. 

"Sec. 2. That for a second or subsequent conviction the fine and 
imprisonment shall be double that of the preceding conviction, and 
in case of a landlord the third offense in the same building shall be 
punished in addition by forfeiture of the building to the Territory. 

"Sec. 3. That an agency for the sale of alcohol for medicinal 
purposes shall be established by the governor of the Territory in 
Honolulu and such other towns as he may designate, under such 
rules as he may make, in charge of agents he shall appoint, who 
shall give adequate bonds to sell only on prescription of a licensed 
physician, and to keep an accurate register of every sale showing the 
purchaser and amount sold. 

"Sec. 4. That this act shall take effect three months after its 
enactment." 

OPENING STATEMENT OF REV. WILBUR F. CRAFTS. 

Mr. Crafts. Mr. Chairman, Senators, and fellow-citizens: We are 
here as a deputation from a temperance conference now in session in 
this city, representing twenty-one national organizations devoted 
wholly or partly to the temperance question. As I am chairman of 
the committee of management, and have conducted fifty-three pre- 
vious hearings before committees of Congress, I have been asked to 
introduce the speakers of the morning to the committee. I need not 
take time for more than a brief statement, because we have here a 
man from Hawaii who will speak with authority as the superintend- 
ent of the Anti-Saloon League in that Territory. I want to call 
attention to two or three facts of history. The first is that the 
Hawaiian people, when they governed themselves, had prohibition 
for sixty years, and King Kalakaua gave it up only when persuaded 
that it was a reflection on the Hawaiian people that they should be 
forbidden to drink liquors while white men were allowed them. They 
claimed equal rights in drunkenness with the white man, with disas- 
trous results ever since. 

When Hawaii came into our Union an amendment to the enabling 
act was introduced in the House, to secure the very thing which 
Senate bill 1862 provides for, that there should be no saloons in 
Hawaii. The House passed it almost before the ink was dry the very 
day it was introduced, and by an almost unanimous vote. But the 
bill had passed the Senate previously without this provision and the 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 5 

matter had therefore to go to a conference committee, and it was in 
that committee it was changed to local option, which in a community 
like that, largely made up of colored races, has not worked well. 
After years of vain efforts to get some adequate legislation from a 
legislature dominated by the natives the evangelical association, 
representing about all the native Christian citizens, asked by petition 
that Congress would take up the matter and prohibit the curse that 
Avas destroying the native race and injuring the whole community. 
On this appeal from the Hawaiian people this bill was drawn and 
sent to Hawaii and was approved by moral leaders there in its present 
form. There may be need of an amendment repealing the local-option 
provision of the enabling act. 

It is "up" to the Senate, if I may use the phrase, having the his- 
tory of that provision in mind, to start this bill at this end this time, 
with the strong probability that the other House will then reaffirm 
their former action. 

This bill was introduced by Senator M. X. Johnson, of North 
Dakota, the author of previous temperance legislation, who has since 
died, and in passing the bill we shall build him a monument in which, 
being dead, he shall yet speak. 

I now introduce Hon. John G. Woolley, an attorney as well as 
temperance leader, and therefore able to look at this matter from a 
lega] as well as moral point of view. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN G. WOOLLEY. 

Mr. Woolley. Mr. Chairman, I have made no preparation and 
have had no expectation of influencing this committee by argument 
on this matter. I shall content myself in any case with making 
what I think to be a simple statement of the facts in the situation. 

I am not the author of this bill nor have I had anything to do in 
the promotion of it. I am the superintendent of the Antisaloon 
League and reside in Honolulu. I have had charge of that work for 
some time. I had no expectation when I took charge of it, and I had 
no expectation up to the time the bill was introduced in the Senate, of 
moving to promote such a bill. It was introduced at the instigation 
of Mr. Crafts, or, perhaps, by Senator Johnson on his own motion. 
The bill was sent to us in Hawaii, it was examined by us, and it was 
approved by the board that emplo} T s me. 

As to this board, it is proper enough, I suppose, for me to say that 
it is composed of what I think anybody who knows Hawaii would 
say are among the best representative citizens, white citizens, of the 
islands — professional men, men of large property, men who represent 
the old missionary families, and who are quite above the suspicion of 
engaging in anything that they did not think was in the interest of 
the community. 

There comes to my mind now a personal matter which perhaps has 
more or less an important relation to this case. I am, unfortunately, 
more or less known as a "professional agitator of the liquor question." 
This is neither pleasing to me nor does it increase my influence and 
efficiency, and this bill illustrates it. When the bill was introduced 
in the Senate and our attention was called to it, we at once notified 
Mr. Crafts that we would be glad to get behind the bill and do any- 
thing we could in its interest; and I began then agitating the best I 



6 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

could in quiet ways among the Hawaiian people who are the rulers 
of the islands — the native people, I mean — in the interest of the bill. I 
found great sympathy shown toward it as I went amongst the people, 
but the agitators on the liquor side, always quick to seize strategic 
opportunities, met my advances in this regard by saying at once, 
a Oh, well, this man is a hired man from the mainland; he has no 
interest in us except to earn his salary and get away if he can get a 
better salary somewhere else. It is not in his mouth to say that we 
are not capable of self-government, and it is not for him to go to Con- 
gress and suggest that we be taken under the arm of Congress in this 
regard or in any regard." This was more or less a taking argument. 
It did not affect anybody except the politicians. I mean by that the 
clever natives who have made politics a profession. 

In the meantime a special session of the legislature had been 
called by the governor to consider some changes in the land laws 
of the islands. At that session of the legislature a liquor dealer 
named J. C. Cohen, a member of the house of representatives and 
a representative of a corporation, I think, called the California 
Wine Company, resident in Honolulu, presented this concurrent 
resolution, which was passed by a large majority — almost unani- 
mously passed in the two houses — discouraging this effort to get 
Congress to legislate. I have not read it, but the newspaper reports 
I had seem to show that the criticism of my butting in, as it was 
called, was embraced in the resolution, too. As to that I have 
only to say it is perfectly natural that such action should have 
been taken by this legislature of native people, only ninety years 
away from barbarism; good people in the main, but very, very 
ill equipped for grappling with difficult problems of this sort and 
for coping with persistent and aggressive and powerful men such 
as represent the liquor traffic in the lobby. The legislature, as is 
doubtless well known to you, is almost entirely composed of native 
men. As I said, they are good men as a rule — that is to say, they 
are patriotic men and desire that the right thing should be done, 
and in a vacuum they do the right thing every time if they know 
what is is. But they yield very Qasily to pressure. Strong white 
men have their way with those people. There is never any doubt 
of that in the mind of anybody who knows the South Seas. I know 
the natives of most of the islands in the South Pacific, and that is 
the fact about it. No matter how good their principles are, no 
matter how firmly fixed their purpose may seem to be, they go to 
pieces under the hard pressure that the shrewd white man is able 
to bring to bear upon them. 

Now, the pressure upon the Hawaiian legislature is the liquor 
pressure. The liquor lobby in Honolulu and elsewhere is very strong. 
The men who are engaged in the liquor business are devoted to that 
business. They have not such a multiplicity of interests as the men 
who are interested against the liquor traffic. To illustrate, when our 
license board of commissioners met at the beginning of this fiscal 
year to consider how many licenses should be issued in the islands 
and what licenses should be issued, I should think that practically 
every liquor dealer in the island was there, and he was not only there 
himself, but in many cases had his attorney there, watching every 
word and watching every motion and ready to take advantage of 
everything and to exert every possible pressure upon the licensing 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN" HAWAII. 7 

board. The only representative of the temperance people, the only 
representative of the Christian people, the only representative of 
that great body of public sentiment which is adverse to the liquor 
interest was myself — a man getting a salary from the Antisaloon 
League and discredited by the fact that for a good many years he 
had been devoted in a more or less professional way to the agitation 
of the reform. It is easy to see what would happen in such a case. 

Those men understand by the law and by their oath of office that 
they are there to represent the public sentiment, and the public 
sentiment that they see most and the public sentiment that they 
feel most is the sentiment expressed by the liquor lobby. White 
men find it very hard to stand up against that. The commission is 
composed of white men. They find it very hard to resist that kind 
of pressure. They hear in the church and prayer meeting and in the 
social circle criticism of the liquor business and they hear stories about 
the havoc it works upon the native people, but they do not carry that 
information to the commission and they do not exert any pressure 
upon the commission. The majority of the influential white men of 
the islands are planters of large property, at any rate of large affairs, 
who, in the nature of things, shun politics which would bring them 
the ill feeling of the native politicians in using democratic ways 
politically. Therefore, speaking broadly, I may say that the white 
men of the islands do not much concern themselves with the elections. 
That is only very broadly put. Some of the strong men on the islands 
do concern themselves in politics, but not many. 

When, therefore, this Mr. Cohen, representing the liquor interest in 
his business, rose to represent them in the legislature and made a 
speech in which he told the native people that a prohibitionist from 
the mainland, hired for the purpose, had gone to Washington to 
induce Congress to declare, in effect, that they were not capable of 
self-government, that they were mere savages who ought to be taken 
care of by Congress, the men in the legislature who sentimentally 
would have been friendly to what I was trying to do were influenced 
adversely to the measure; at least influenced favorably to the passage 
of a resolution which should assert their authority to govern them- 
selves. 

The fact about those people is that, with the best intentions in the 
world, they are children, and if a commission composed of white men 
finds it hard to stand up against the pressure of the liquor influence 
in the community, very much more is it impossible for these native 
men to stand up against that kind of pressure. 

So the point I make about this is that the native legislature, with 
the pressure that is bearing upon it all the time, is unable to deal 
wisely with the liquor problem in the islands. 

I assert, without any fear that anybody who knows the facts will 
ever contradict it, that a very large majority of the native people of 
the islands would favor this bill or such a bill. I have traveled into 
all parts of the islands and, as far as I know myself, I had no purpose 
in going except to do those people good if I could. I sounded them 
about it. I spoke to them in church meetings and gatherings of one 
kind and another. I had their speeches interpreted to me wherever 
I went, and I dare to say that every good woman in Hawaii wants 
this bill or such a bill passed, and practically all the men who are not 
professionally engaged in polices are for this bill — all the native men. 



8 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

Now, if that were not true, if it were probable that the natives were 
able to govern themselves and that they were desirous of continuing 
the licensing system in the islands, the legislature, which knows very 
well the sentiment of that little community, would be quite willing 
to submit a local option proposition to the people by some plebiscite 
or other. But it would be absolutely impossible to get the legislature 
of Hawaii to submit to the people the question of local option by 
counties or otherwise in the islands. The fact is that the liquor 
people there understand that they dare not submit that question to 
the people, and they do not intend that the people shall even have a 
chance to express an opinion about it. The lobby feels confident of 
controlling the legislature under the present condition and it proposes 
to keep the present condition there. 

I am told that a great many letters have been written to Members 
of the Senate and the House since I left. I suggested that such a 
thing be done, and I understand that the suggestion has been received 
with great favor by the people and that many letters are being 
written. You will know about that better than I. 

For fear that I should forget it, I call your attention to a newspaper 
clipping which I have just received, in which the attitude of the 
Delegate in Congress is shown. This is a clipping from the Pacific 
Commercial Advertiser, of which Loren Thurston is the owner and 
the responsible editor — the chief editor, perhaps, I should say. I 
have numerous private letters here showing clearly that this is a 
correct statement of facts. This is a quotation from an interview 
with the Delegate. 

"I am decidedly opposed to federal prohibition of the liquor trade," said Dele- 
gate Kuhio, yesterday. "I believe that the enactment by .Congress of a prohibition 
act for Hawaii would be tantamount to an advertisement that we are not capable of 
self-government, and that Congress had been obliged to take the matter out of our 
hands and pass a law to protect us because we could not protect ourselves." 

You see that the keynote straight through is an expression of 
resentment at the suggestion that these people are not just as well 
able to govern themselves as white people are. 

I do not wish to be understood as being opposed to a prohibition law if it is enacted 
by our local legislature. If such a bill comes before the legislature, I will support it 
heartily, for the good of my own people. 

Personally I am not in favor of prohibition. 

That is, as applied to himself, he must mean, I suppose. 

Personally I am not in favor of prohibition. What I would like to see is a limitaion 
of the number of saloons, such as we used to have under the monarchy. I believe 
that the best thing would be to have five or six good saloons, for I do not believe that 
under those conditions there would be the drinking among the Hawaiians that there 
is now. Under the monarchy we had only a few saloons and those good ones. The 
Hawaiians did not patronize them — 

They did not dare to patronize them. The saloons did not dare 
to sell' them liquor up to the time of King Kalakaua, that was the 
law. While it was always insisted by the whites there that they were 
entitled to buy liquor and drink it, although many of the Hawaiian 
chiefs died drunkards, and some of the kings were visibly destroyed 
by the liquor traffic themselves, they always insisted that the common 
people should not be permitted to buy liquor, and they did not. 
Sobriety was the rule among the Hawaiian people until shortly 
before the annexation of the islands to this Government. 

The Hawaiians did not patronize them. 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 9 

The saloons — 

They did not hand you one bottle over the bar and me another. 

That is an allusion to the fact that when an Hawaiian went into a 
saloon he got a bottle of cheap blended whisky and when a white 
man goes in he gets a bottle of better liquor. That is the idea. 

But the Hawaiians do patronize the low groggeries, such as we have now down 
toward Palama, and they drink the vile stuff that is sold over those bars. 
The Hawaiian, unfortunately 

This is absolutely true 

The Hawaiian, unfortunately, does not drink for the taste of the liquor. 

It is equally true that he does not drink for any social reasons. 

The Hawaiian, unfortunately, does not drink for the taste of the liquor. He drinks 
to get drunk 

That is all he drinks for 



And the liquor that will make him drunk soonest is the liquor he wants. 

Perhaps the worst liquor that is sold there is called Dago Red. 
I do not know whether the term exists on the mainland or not. It 
is sold for 60 cents a gallon, and a gallon of it will keep two Hawaiian 
families drunk for two days. A Hawaiian can go into a wholesale 
house in Honolulu and buy for 15 cents a quart of Dago Red, a con- 
coction of cologne spirits and red wine and I do not know what else. 
but a deadly liquor. 

If he can get drunk on one drink, he is satisfied, and he will drink anything that 
will produce that effect. That is why I should like to see the cheap saloons closed 
up — not because I am a temperance crank myself, but for the good of my own people. 

If a prohibition bill is introduced in the legislature, I will support it and work 
for it. 

There is no doubt that lie would, because in some public addresses 
lie has expressed himself in those same terms. 

I will support it and work for it — not because I believe in prohibition myself, but 
for the good of my people. I would rather see a limitation of the number of saloons. 
but if we can not have that, I am in favor of prohibition. 

The Hawaiian prince considers that there is a vast step between 
him and his people, and the rule which would apply to the common 
people would be quite different from the ride which ought to apply 
to a prince. 

But I distinctly am not in favor of prohibition by act of Congress and I will do 
all I can to defeat the passage of any such law. 

I have read this because it is proper for you to know it, and surely 
you would know it because the Delegate himself can express himself 
freely right here. I have only to urge about it that his own argument 
shows the merit of this bill. The only thing that he presents to you 
or will present to you, if he speaks, is the question as to whether it is 
exactly courteous to those people to intimate that they are not per- 
fectly able to govern themselves. 

Now, I am taking too much time, but if you will bear with me for 
another minute or two I want to say that if the people who are against 
the liquor traffic in the islands were so actively disposed to exert the 
pressure that they could exert upon the legislature, undoubtedly we 
could have a prohibitory law from the territorial legislature. If that 
pressure were exerted and we got such a law I insist that we would 



10 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

still be very badly off, because the constabulary throughout the group 
is native. Practically, there are no white policemen or white deputy 
sheriffs, or constables; they are all natives, speaking roughly, and 
all weak, when it comes to standing up against a hard thing. It is 
very hard in this city, I dare say, to get a policeman to be very 
aggressive in Watching his neighbor who is suspected of selling whisky 
or otherwise violating the law. The local influence always affects the 
constabulary. One of the leading qualities of the Hawaiian is his 
friendliness. He hates trouble; he hates friction. He would endure 
almost anything rather than to have a row. He does not like it. So 
he submits to imposition upon himself in a way surpassing that I 
suppose of any other man, certainly of any other I know anything 
about. They are a great, big, beautiful, lazy people, with desires to 
reach upward all the time, with the greatest kindliness and generosity 
characterizing them, but with absolutely no grit to fight a hard 
political fight and stay put and take punishment in it. 

Hundreds of years of training have taught the Anglo-Saxon man to 
drink some and bear it and keep sober and be thrifty and behave 
himself. Those native people can not do it. Th^ Hawaiian who goes 
to drinking goes to pieces. There is almost no exception to that. 
The history of the growth of the liquor traffic in the islands corrobo- 
rates all I have said. Some escaped convicts from Botany Bay 
brought the liquor traffic to the islands. At that time the people 
were barbarians. They were never cannibals, they were not a savage 
people, but kindly and orderly. These stowaways from Botany Bay 
brought the knowledge of how to brew distilled liquor from the 
sweet roots, sugar cane, and so forth, which would grow in the 
islands, and a perfect storm of drunkenness went over the country. 
This was in the time of King Kamehameha, the founder of the dy- 
nasty. He was a strong man, a good man, and at once put the 
taboo upon the liquor business and cast it out so far as the common 
people were concerned. But whalers and sailors and adventurers of 
one kind and another were on the beach and they insisted, of course, 
and at one time under French guns insisted that they had a right 
not only to land liquor there but to drink liquor and sell it as well. 
The chief difficulty with the Hawaiian kings from the beginning was 
the liquor habit. The liquor traffic gained in influence and the liquor 
people gained in power straight along through these hundred years 
since the convicts from Botany Bay landed there, and finally when the 
liquor influence demanded that the saloons should be opened to the 
natives just as to other people the king had not grit enough to refuse. 
So it happened that everybody in the islands was turned over to the 
tender mercies of this crudest of trades. 

I could present to you, and I shall present to you at the proper time, 
a lot of petitions and letters which have come to me that I did not 
expect would come to me, but which have reached me since I came 
to Washington. I shall take occasion to read you one of them 
and to corroborate the facts stated in it by knowledge of my own. 
This is a petition "to the honorable Members of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, Congress of the United States, Washington. " I 
had no hand in the preparation of this petition and I did not know 
that it was to be prepared. 

We, the undersigned, mothers and wives, residing in the district of Kakaako, city 
of Honolulu 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN" HAWAII. H 

That is the poor district of Honolulu — 

residing in the district of Kakaako, city of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, a district 
all but ruined by intoxicating drink, respectfully and earnestly petition for relief 
at the hands of Congress, as the territoral authorities seem unable to protect us. 

This petition is signed by I do not know how many people, mothers 
and wives it says they are. I have a lot of such petitions from the 
Territory in English. I have also several of them in the Hawaiian 
language, and I can not certify as to what they contain. 

I have also a resolution from the Ministerial Union of Honolulu, a 
very able body of men, as some of you know, and men absolutely 
above the suspicion of meddling with things like this unwisely. 

Be it resolved, That the Ministerial Union of Honolulu, at its meeting on October 4, 
1909, desires to put itself on record in favor of the passage of Senate bill 1862, to pro- 
hibit selling of intoxicating beverages in Territory of Hawaii, and 

Be it further resolved, That copies of this resolution be forwarded to both the Senate 
and House of Representatives of the United States. 

By its president, A. C. McKeever. 

By its secretary, Amos A. Ebersole. 

I have spoken thus far about the natives, and the temptation is to 
speak more about them, but I will leave that now with a single re- 
mark. The policy of this Government, as shown by the international 
agreement protecting the natives of the South Seas from the liquor 
traffic, logically points to such action as -this by Congress, because if 
any natives of the South Seas deserve protection from that thing these 
natives do. If any natives in the South Seas need protection these do. 

It would seem like a bit of sentimentality, I think, if I should try 
to tell }^ou experiences I have had in presenting this matter to the 
Hawaiian people at their meetings. They are great people to go to 
church and to hold Sunday schools, what we should call union meetings 
of Sunday schools and churches, gathering all from one island into 
one place to stay two or three days and have a feast and have a 
meeting. I presented this matter to them at many of those places, 
and I have not had anything happen to me in my experience as a 
worker equal to the experience of standing up in the poorly lighted 
meetings out of doors or sometimes indoors, with this crowd of 
great, big, brown, grave, solemn-looking people, unemotional so far 
as the usual expressions of emotions go. They are not people who 
are inclined to shed tears, but there, where practically everybody in 
the group is a Christian, nominally all Christians, of course, and 
therefore more or less with a dip toward my own side of the question, 
they would sit weeping while I asked them what they wanted to do 
about this thing, and at the end of the meeting every soul in the house 
with enthusiasm would press about me and ask what they could do 
and make whatever suggestions they had, that petitions be gotten 
up or letters be written, as the case may be. 

I would not ask a minute of your time to make an argument if I 
could just get the men who might have control of this situation to 
look at that once and see it. Some Members of the House were over 
this last summer. Among others I remember meeting Representa- 
tive Miller, of Kansas. Although I have had no conference with him 
about it more than simply to meet him in passing, I am quite sure 
that he will confirm what I tell you about the needs of the natives 
and the rights of the natives and the imminence of the difficulty there 
at this time. 



12 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

One thing more about it is that the policy of this Government as 
shown in our treatment of Samoa, Tutuila, Ahu, and Manua, logically 
points to this action in behalf of the Hawaiians. I have spent a 
good deal of time in our Samoan Islands among the natives. They 
are absolutely sober and very glad to be sober. Not one of them 
would enter into a scheme to get liquor. But if a sailor lands there 
and brings a jug of whisky they will drink it and get drunk just as 
quickly as they can. However, it is the policy of the Government 
to keep drink away from those people, and every captain of the navy 
who has represented this Government as the governor of our islands 
in Samoa has taken the ground that drink absolutely should be kept 
away from them; and he has succeeded in doing it. 

The Hawaiian people are as deserving and as needy as the Samoans 
in that regard. They are further advanced in many ways of civiliza- 
tion than the Samoan people are, of course; but I think they are just 
about as weak as regards drink. 

Now, I turn away from that and will say just a word or two about 
soldiers. I need not advertise to you that the Hawaiian Islands are 
a very, very important military point, increasing in importance every 
day. • It is the most important point in the Union, I suppose, from a 
militaiy and naval point of view. Great fortifications are being built 
there. Your shipyard at Pearl City is being built. The chief ques- 
tion, I suppose, in the case <5f difficulty with Japan or the East would 
be how strong is Hawaii and how many soldiers and sailors are there. 
It has been a part of my business, at least a part of my interest, to 
watch them and help them if I could, speaking on battle ships and 
holding meetings for them on shore, in which I urged them to total 
abstinence and tried to teach them the best I could the physiological 
effects of alcohol upon them. 

I should like to speak in as high terms as I could command about 
the quality of those soldiers and sailors. Mostly they are young, 
smooth-faced boys, lusty and strong and sober in the main. But 
the life is very lonely, the Tropics are enervating, the pressure of 
the temptation to drink is always upon them, and many of them go 
to pieces by it and make disgraceful records for themselves. The 
marine barracks is in the midst of the district of Kakaako, concerning 
which I read you from this petition. Scenes of most disgraceful 
disorder, the influence of drink, happen there because it is in close 
proximity to the brewer whose corporation is composed of a kind of 
men who despise the regulative laws of the Territory and who, on 
Sundays and other days when it is unlawful, have saloons to sell 
drink, and who sell kegs of beer to the soldiers, and thus are in com- 
plicity with their drinking to great extent. 

The policy, of course, of Congress is to keep drink, as I said, away 
from the inside of camps, and the military officers, so far as I know, 
respect that provision of Congress. I think the provision of Congress 
is growing in favor among the officers who are studious and thoughtful 
about it, although I know that high officers of the army are still in 
favor of restoring intoxicating liquors to the canteen. But as the 
law stands, and as I think the sentiment of the public certainly and 
perhaps in the arnry stands, if it could alb be accurately taken, the 
policy is to prohibit drink on the inside of the military camps. 

In the island of Oahu, where distances are short, where fortresses 
are being built and where the city of Honolulu stands, and where 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IX HAWAII. 13 

there are perhaps 75 licensed liquor places, it is practically equiv- 
alent to having drink in the camp, because the distances are so short 
and the quarters so provided that, with the saloons yawning before 
these boys who go about in their idle time, a provision of Congress 
keeping drink out of camp is really of no benefit to them in those 
conditions. 

Now, I have tried to be careful not to exaggerate the evils of the 
drink there, because I should hate to have it go back in anywise to 
the Hawaiian people that I have come here to slander them. I love 
them very much, indeed, and I am interested in them beyond any 
interest I have ever felt in this work in any way. But this action 
should be taken for the sake of the soldiers to whose sobriety we ought 
to look and for whose sobriety we ought to work in every way we 
can without intrenching upon the proper liberty of men, and for the 
sake of the natives who are really the salvage of nearly a hundred 
years of Christian effort in those islands and who have shrunk from 
a population of 200,000, estimated a hundred years ago, to less than 
40,000, yes, less than 35,000 probably now, and a population that, as 
I said and as everybody knows who has traveled there and observed 
at all, is quite incapable of indulging in drink without receiving more 
than the usual harm that comes from that kind of indulgence. 

For these reasons and for many other reasons I should like to give 
if there were time, I urge upon you the favorable consideration of 
this bill or of such a bill. 

MEMORIAL OF HAWAIIAN LEGISLATURE. 

The Chairman. Mr. Woolley, the memorial of the Hawaiian legis- 
ture was officially sent to the committee for the purpose of this 
hearing. As you have in whole and in detail thoroughly replied to 
it, I suppose it ought to be made a part of the record. 

Mr. Crafts. Yes. 

Mr. Woolley. I thank you very much. 

(The memorial referred to is as follows:) 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE TERRITORY 
OF HAWAII, PROTESTING AGAINST CONGRESSIONAL INTERFERENCE 
WITH LOCAL REGULATION OF THE SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 

Be it resolved by the senate and house of representatives of the Terri- 
tory of Hawaii, That whereas a bill has been introduced in the Con- 
gress of the United States to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor 
in the Territory of Hawaii ; and 

Whereas said Congress is being urged to enact such law on the 
ground that it is the wish of the people of this Territory; and 

Whereas the Federal Congress, by an act entitled "An act pro- 
viding for the government of the Territory of Hawaii," specif- 
ically declared that the legislative power of the Territory shall 
extend to all rightful subjects of legislation not inconsistent with 
the Constitution and laws of the United States legally applicable: 
and, further, that no spirituous or intoxicating liquors be sold except 
under such regulations and restrictions as the territorial legislature 
shall provide ; and 



14 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

Whereas the said territorial legislature, in regular session assem- 
bled, has duly regulated and restricted the sale and manufacture of 
intoxicating liquors in this Territory in accordance with the wishes 
of the people hereof; therefore 

Be it resolved, That we, the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, 
in the name of the people of Hawaii, earnestly protest against the 
Federal Congress taking from the people of this Territory the right 
to ' prohibit or regulate the liquor traffic in Hawaii or any other 
matter exclusively affecting the welfare of this Territory; and be it 
further 

Resolved, That we declare that such proposed legislation by the 
Federal Congress would be a violation of the principles of local self- 
government and home rule so dear to the hearts of all Americans and 
would brand Hawaii as incapable of self-government; and be it 
further 

Resolved j That the honorable .Jonah Kuhio Kalamanaole, Territorial 
Delegate to the United States Congress from Hawaii, be urged to do 
all in his power to prevent the passage of such proposed prohibition 
legislation by the United States Congress; and be it further 

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution, signed and attested by 
the proper officers of the legislature of Hawaii, be forwarded to the 
honorable Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, Territorial Delegate to the 
United States Congress, with the request that he present the same 
to the United States Congress and to the committees of said Congress 
to whom said federal bill may have been referred for action. 

J. C. Cohen, 
Representative, Fourth District. 



House of Representatives, 

of the Territory of Hawaii, 

Honolulu, T. Hawaii, November 5, 1909. 
We hereby certify that the foregoing concurrent resolution was 
this day adopted in the house of representatives of the Territory of 
Hawaii. 

H. L. Holstein, 
Speaker House of Representatives . 

Edward Woodward, 
Clerk: House of Representatives, 



The Senate of the Territory of Hawaii, 

Honolulu, November 5, 1909. 
We hereby certify that the foregoing house concurrent resolution 
No. 3 was this day adopted in the senate of the Territory of Hawaii. 

William O. Smith, 

President of th e 8 e note. 
John H. Wise. 

Clerk of the Senate. 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 15 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF REV. WILBUR F. CRAFTS. 

Mr. Crafts. As it has been charged in Hawaii, and perhaps will be 
charged by some here, that this matter originated with outsiders, 
permit me to say again that it was only after repeated and strong 
pressure from citizens of Hawaii that it was introduced in Congress 
in their behalf. The matter was turned over to Senator Johnson with 
a unanimous petition of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, which 
includes practically all the Hawaiian people. 

Mr. Woolley. You had just been to Hawaii? 

Mr. Crafts. Yes; I had just come from Hawaii, and had spoken 
to the Hawaiian senate. 

The liquor traffic, of course, wish to make it appear that there has 
been no demand for this bill in Hawaii, and that the demand for it 
has come from outside. But Senator M. N. Johnson, before intro- 
ducing it, made sure it was what the moral leaders of the people of 
Hawaii had asked for. There were letters as well as petitions to 
prove this. 

I want to say also that this demand was due to the fact that the 
good citizens of Hawaii had waited long for the legislature to give 
them what they desire and deserve. Ever since they came into 
territorial relations to our country they have besought their legis- 
lature to act. When I was there they called a meeting of the senate 
to hear what I might have to say. I was then on a world tour, and 
I spoke for a very mild form of prohibition by local option that was 
proposed, and on a matter that had close relation to it — opium. I 
repeated the statement of a high official that the use of opium was 
slowly spreading from Chinese to Hawaiians. I spoke to nine sena- 
tors, three of whom, if I remember rightly, were white liquor dealers, 
who held several of the other six men, mostly natives, in the hollow 
of their hands. 

When I had left the islands there arose this same cry that an out- 
sider had charged that the Hawaiians were not equal to white people. 
In the case of this bill we see again the same sensitiveness that 
characterizes an inferior race. 

I shall presently introduce one who can cite the precedent of our 
action in Indian Territory, if he chooses, the twenty-one years' pro- 
tection of Indian Territory provided when we combined it for state- 
hood with Oklahoma. 

There is another precedent in the action of Congress in the Lodge- 
Gillett Act, which provided that no opium, firearms, or intoxicating 
liquors should be sold by any American trader even in islands we do 
not possess in the Pacific Ocean — all islands not under any civilized 
government. 

So we have not only executive prohibition in Samoa but we have 
also legislative prohibition to the extent of our power in all other 
Pacific islands. 

Before presenting the last speaker I wish to introduce some of 
those present who represent great societies. First, several officers 
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union: Mrs. M. D. Ellis, 
national legislative superintendent; Mrs. Ella A. Boole, New York 
State president; Mrs. Emma M. Bourne, New Jersey president; Mrs. 
Frances E. Beauchamp, Kentucky president: Mrs. Frances W. 
Graham, vice-president New York "State; Mrs. Rutherford, super- 



16 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

intendent juvenile court. Also a group of district superintendents 
of the International Reform Bureau, of which I am national super- 
intendent: Rev. Geo. W. Peck, LL. D., Rev. G. L. Tufts, Ph. D., 
Revs. O. R. and R. C. Miller, Rev. A. S. Gregg, Rev. W: S. Winans. 
Let me add Miss Marie C. Brehm, national lecturer of the Presby- 
terian Assembly's temperance committee; Miss Cora F. Stoddard, 
of the Scientific Temperance Federation; Mr. J. W. Cummings, of 
the Xational Temperance Society. There are 21 different national 
societies, with as many millions in their constituency, represented by 
their officers or b}^ official delegates in the temperance conference of 
which we are a deputation. The Good Templars are represented by 
Rev. E. C. Dinwiddie, national electoral superintendent, who is also 
chairman of the Lutheran national temperance committee. 

PETITIONS IN FAVOR OF THE BILL. 

Mr. Woolley. I should like to inquire what is the pleasure of the 
committee as to these other petitions. 

The Chairman. They should be included in the record. 

Mr. Crafts. They should be filed in the Senate first. 

The Chairman. That will be done. 

Mr. Crafts. Senator Depew will see that they are presented. 

(The petitions referred to are as follows: ) 

A petition in the Hawaiian language, signed by Mrs. Keahi and 13 
others. 



Laupahoehoe, Hawaii, September 2J h 1909. 
To the Senate of the United States of America in Congress assembled: 

We, the members of the association of the Congregational Churches 
of the island of Hawaii, the same consisting of the pastors and dele- 
gates of the 33 churches, in conference assembled, earnestly petition 
your honorable body for the immediate enactment of the bill S. 1862, 
presented by the honorable Mr. Johnson, of North Dakota, April 19, 
1909, to prohibit selling of intoxicating beverages in Territory of 
Hawaii . 



By the Moderator 



G. L. Kopa. 
David Alawa, 

Scribe. 

G. M. Kamakawiwoole, 

T. S. K. Nakanelua, Delegate, 

G. P. Kamanoha, Delegate, 

Elected committee. 



A petition in the Hawaiian language signed by D. N. Opunini 
and 64 others. 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 17 

Honolulu, November 1, 1909. 
Hon. Johx G. Woolley, 

University Heights, Madison, Wis. 

My dear Mr. Woolley: I have the pleasure of forwarding to 
you herewith the petition of the Association of the Island of Hawaii, 
asking for the passage of act S. 1862, prohibiting the manufacture 
and sale of intoxicating beverages in the Territory of Hawaii. 

The Kanai Association, which Mr. Oleson and myself attended 
last week, passed a similar resolution, or petition, which Rev. J. M. 
Lydgate will doubtless forward to you. 

You will know the best use to make of these two papers. 

In the Advertiser of October 21 is notice of the death, on the 21st 
of October, of Senator Johnson, of Xorth Dakota. This must be the 
Senator who introduced the Senate bill 1862 on April 19, 1909. His 
passing away may make no difference if others are found to push it. 

By mail I send you the Commercial Advertiser of October 29, which 
gives an account of the death of a Hawaiian young man, Kane- 
kaluna, 22 years of age, who, returning drunk from the funeral of his 
sister, began severely to beat his younger sisters. Being remon- 
strated with by his father, he left, saying that they would not see 
him alive again. Going out in the darkness, he laid himself down upon 
the railroad track, and was soon torn to pieces by the passing train. 
Such is the fruit of the saloon. 

I shall write of this to Senator A. J. Beveridge. 

Our kind regards to yourself and Mrs. Woolley. 

Yours, truly, O. H. Gulick. 



Waianae, Oahu, T. H. ; October 9, 1909. 
To the Senate of the United States of America in Congress assembled: 

We, the members of the Association of the Congregational Churches 
of the Island of Oahu, the same consisting of pastors and delegates 
of the fifteen churches in conference assembled, earnestly petition 
your honorable body for the immediate enactment of the bill S. 1862, 
presented by honorable Mr. Johnson, of Xorth Dakota, April 19, 
1909, to prohibit selling of intoxicating beverages in the Territory of 
Hawaii. 

By the moderator: 

H. K. Poepoe. 
By the scribe: 

Wm. K. Poai. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled: 

We, the Congregational Churches of the island and county of 
Kauai, Territory of Hawaii, in association assembled, being the 
pastors and delegates of the twelve churches of this island and 
county aforesaid, hereby petition for the immediate passage of the 
Senate bill 1862, introduced by the honorable Mr. Johnson, of North 
Dakota, April 19, 1909, to prohibit the manufacture and sale of 
intoxicating beverages in the Territory of Hawaii. 
23340—10 2 



18 PBOHXBmoH 0F LIQU0E TRAFFIC m HAWAn _ 

^^iS^Jt^^^ to the salvatmn of t]M 
UP ° n ° Ur I8lands > - will XSS% 2 «££* of all the races 

W, CoraTY 0F KAUAI> h^<^£* 

S.gnedbyB.N. Kahue J a P d a y 4otlierg 

a^t ^^ Te^Tf' g*X\* *> district of 

and humbly petition the United St^tl <? T 1 ' hereb y respectfully 

And we will ever pray WIllor 5 or -Hawaii. 

Signed by William Corner and 28 others 

g^"^%aSfe t ^^-» C Dmwmd., the 
^ood Templars. or tlle international Order of 

STATEMENT OF REV. EDWIlf ft ^^^ 

apSar D forX D monfent C o^?o ai tnit ? ^ WWth whil « for me to 
word what h as already beenTaid S"^ to "onfirm fn a 
arise m the mind of any Senator riL ¥ there should an 7 doubt 
stated concerning the character of ^ reference to what has been 
ator Johnson regarding the Wi T representations made to Sen 
fJKs proposed^legisfat on, but as I doT m Ha ^ aii in the Matter" 
Whfen tC SiWy T 0Ught l ° Pre-nt it d ° We confirmation for it, I 

a £S£ inte q r Catet SS**" Jo1 ™ *» Produce such 
and asked what my judgment wlf ^ m , to Terence w th hini 
hat kind, what its chCceTwe re VZt ^ t0 a m « 
the T country would probably TaHv £ fE Sag6 ' and how the people of 
.,1am going to beVrirefy frank and r P ?^ ° T f SUch a measure 
th at my attitude with referent ? i Sa 7 that J indicated to him 
certainfy feel first that Wanted to® it * H W °V Id be t^t Ishou 
,,< "' , " V dlreCt * """"-H^^^^""^ of the 

1 ieit, ot course, 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IX HAWAII. 19 

naturally friendly to any proposition of that kind, but before I could 
feel like attempting to array the organizations with which I am identi- 
fied in favor of the measure, I should like to know how the Hawaiian 
people felt toward it, and having never made a visit to Hawaii and 
having had comparatively little correspondence with people resident 
in the islands, I am frank to say I told him that personalty I knew 
little about that attitude. 

I wish to say now that the Senator held the matter in abeyance, 
and after that conference I know took it up with a view of ascertain- 
ing what was the feeling of those who are most vitally interested in 
the question. He told me afterwards, and before the introduction 
of the bill, that he had satisfied himself that the bulk of the moral, 
Christian sentiment of Hawaii was for this measure, and that the 
great preponderance of the native element of the islands was strongly 
in favor of the passage of a bill of this kind. 

This confirmation is not necessary in view of the statement made 
by Doctor Crafts and possibly by Mr. Woolley, but I happen to have 
that confirmation with reference to the action of the deceased Senator 
who introduced the measure, and I felt that I ought to put it on 
record as at least having some tendency to show that among those 
two elements we have referred to, the local sentiment is exceedingly 
strong for the passage of the bill. Senator Johnson stated that to me 
himself. 

In the time that is left, Mr. Woolley having so thoroughly covered 
the local situation and presented the reasons that appear to be at all 
of a telling character for the passage of this measure, it seems to me 
that about all I can say and all I ought at this time to say is that 
the three organizations with which I am more or less officially iden- 
tified have placed themselves on record directly as favoring the pas- 
sage of this proposed legislation. In the first place, I am chairman of 
the Permanent Committee on Temperance of the General Synod of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States of America, and by 
specific resolution at its last convention, in June, 1909, it asked for such 
legislation on the liquor traffic for the Hawaiians. The National 
Grand Lodge of Good Templars of the International Order of Good 
Templars, which is perhaps the largest distinctly total-abstinence 
organization in the world, at its annual session in August of this year 
passed a resolution demanding the passage of this measure, or one 
similar to it, and which was unanimously adopted; and I was in fact 
instructed by that body to press for legislation of this kind in its name. 

I am also a vice-president, representing my church, of the National 
Inter-Church Temperance Federation, .which is an official federation 
of the various duly constituted temperance agencies of at least eight 
or nine leading denominations in this country. I do not know that 
at first blush I can call them all off, but these I know are identified 
with the federation by specific action of their general body or by 
their permanent committee's action: The Presbyterian denomina- 
tion, the United Presbyterian denomination, the Baptists of North 
America, the Reformed Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the 
Disciples of Christ, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the General 
Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 

Mr. Crafts. The Unitarians? 

Mr. Dinwiddie. The Unitarians, and I think the Universalists ; 
I am not sure as to the latter. 



20 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

Mr. Crafts. The Unitarians at a meeting- 



Mr. Dinwiddie. The real fact is that the denominations which have 
become officially identified with the federation have within their 
churches a membership of about 12,000,000 communicants, and the 
federation is unique in that it is a federation pure and simple of the 
official temperance agencies of these various denominations. I want 
to make it clear that I do not wish as an officer of the federation to 
speak directly for the Methodist Episcopal «Church, they having, 
before the federation was perfected, appointed one of their committees 
to speak for that denomination, but we all know the Methodist Church 
well enough to know that they would not antagonize a proposition 
of this kind; in fact, that they would heartily indorse such a propo- 
sition; and certainly in some of the other denominations they have 
passed special resolutions in favor of it. I will conclude with the 
suggestion that the National Inter-Church Federation at its meeting 
scarcely more than a month ago, in November, in the city of Indian- 
apolis, passed a strong resolution unanimously asking Congress for 
the passage of this legislation. 

In this brief period, Mr. Chairman and Senators, this is all that I 
feel I have a right to take the time to say. I thank you for this 
courtesy. 

MR. WOOLLEY'S REPORT UPON THE LIQUOR PROBLEM IN HAWAII. 

Mr. Woolley. Mr. Chairman, I should like to inquire whether it 
would be competent for me to forward to the committee a paper 
which I have not received, as I did not expect the hearing to be held 
at this time. It is a report upon the Hawaiian situation to the 
Ministers' Union in Chicago, and which I think in very compact form 
presents the matter in a way I should like to have it put before Sen- 
ators. Would it be competent for me to forward that paper? 

The Chairman. I think so, unless the same information is before 
the committee in the papers already filed. 

Senator Fletcher. Is it a recent paper? 

Mr. Woolley. It was read about a week or ten days ago in 
Chicago. 

Mr. Crafts. There is unanimous agreement to Mr. Woolley' s 
request, I understand. 

The Chairman. It is the sentiment of the committee that any 
papers relating to this question which will tend to illuminate or 
elucidate it may be added to the record. 

(The report referred to is as follows:) 

THE LIQUOR PROBLEM IN HAWAII, BY JOHN G. WOOLLEY. 

I have not been idle in Hawaii, but my report is a record not of 
accomplishment, but of opportunity and need. 

Draw a line from Seattle to Sydney; another from San Francisco 
to Port Darwin; another from San Diego to Singapore; another from 
Acapulco to Yokohama; another from Panama to Hongkong; 
another from Valparaiso to Vladivostok; another from Cape Nome 
to Tahiti; and another from Sitka to Wellington. 

These lines will cross in the Hawaiian Islands, the Pleiades of 
the Pacific — eight inhabited floating gardens, marvels of beauty, 



PKOHIBITION OF LIQTJOK TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 21 

salubrity , and hospitality — where, even as here, the liquor trade, 
the leprosy of human industry, eats off the fingers of opportunity; 
eats away the lips of truth; eats out the eyes of ambition and the 
heart of hope; and pays a rake off to the revenues for the privilege. 
That is my parish and my home. 

These islands were discovered by Captain Cook in 1778, just at 
the time when King George III was discovering Mr. George 
Washington. 

Exactly one hundred and twenty years later the Hawaiian Repub- 
lic left itself on the doorstep of the United States and became the 
Territory of Hawaii, in line for statehood, and already beginning to 
play a part of prodigious significance in the drama of world politics, 
for the New World has moved to Asia ; America fronts west and the 
Pacific Ocean is the future. 

Uncle Sam has no niece that can compare in loveliness with his 
adopted daughter. The Hawaiian year has but one month — 365 days 
of rare north temperate June. The Hawaiian dictionary contains no 
word for "weather." 

But the climatic perfection implies no monotony of temperature. 
The ocean currents and the contour of the land insure variety, all the 
way from perpetual snow on the top of Mauna Kea to 85° Fahrenheit 
in the lea of Punchbowl. If one knows what climate he wishes, he 
takes a walk and gets it; that is all. At a given point the mean 
annual variation is about 10° and the range from noon to midnight 
about the same. 

The Hawaiian landscape matches the climate by contrast. The 
one is as bold as the other is mild. 

From my office window, to the right, half a dozen exquisite valleys 
open, thick with bungalows at first, but later mounting into primeval 
lava shards and scraps of rainbow, vocal and fragrant with voices 
and odors of the woods, and in the upper reaches damp with frequent 
rains and capricious mountain streams. 

In front the Waianae range of mountains scrawls its long indenture 
on the sky-line, witnessing to the indefeasible title of life against the 
tryanny of force, and even death, the trespasser: for all these quiet, 
reassuring summits are old volcanoes that in some youthful passion 
of the world hissed their hot fury from the ocean bed and spouted 
red defiance at the stars while the sea boiled like a kettle. But here 
they stand, groups of bucolic statuary, catching rain water for miles 
and miles of sugar cane. The boiling lava was land in the making, 
the bellowing eruption was the love song of the elements, and the 
fire was life or full of life. 

To the left, I spend many an hour watching the long catapult of the 
South Pacific, green, jealous, cruel, ramming, wave on wave, 10,000 
miles of sullen protest against these upstart specks of change, only 
to fling out flags of surf against the coral bayonets of the reef, where 
ships of all nations ride in utter calm, and brown Hawaiian boys 
disport themselves as in a pond. It is the truce of reaction to reform. 

The blue haze on the mountains, the green interminableness of the 
sea, the gracious brooding of the soft, sweet sky, the quiet of the 
scene and of the life induce a spell almost hypnotic. The spirit of 
Hawaii seems to say: "There, do not hurry, there is plenty of time. 
Work if you will, but don't ferment; what is left to-day will be good 
for to-morrow, or, mayhope, there will be other days." 



22 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

If you gather from this that Hawaii is indolent or slipshod, you 
mislead yourself. Where nerves do not sputter, fewer motions give! 
more results. Hawaii is slow, but busy. We have great riches, but 
no idle rich. 

The extranatural conditions conduce to tolerance and breadth of 
beam. Ships are civilization, and Hawaii is the crossroads for the 
ships of all nations. All sorts and conditions of men mingle on our 
water front. All freaks and ingenuities of vice and all the standard 
forms of virtue gather there. 

American civilization is on trial in Hawaii with every known com- 
petition present and working, and tourist statesmen, students, and 
philanthropists from the four quarters of the earth taking notes. 

The Territory of Hawaii is inspector-general of American public 
health against the invasion of oriental diseases. No infected ships 
get farther than quarantine in Honolulu Bay nor clears that port 
without full timely warning to the mainland. 

The Territory of Hawaii is the master key of the Pacific in case of 
war. No fleet from the Far East could even deliver a challenge to 
America without coaling at Honolulu. The great American question 
in the event of trouble with Japan would be, ' ' How strong is Hawaii \ ,} 
And the Federal Government is constructing the answer now, regard- 
less of expense. 

In the curve of the beach at Waikiki deep emplacements are wait- 
ing for the great guns that will command the roadway from the harbor 
to the sea. Dead in front of the channel, and sweeping it from end to 
end, another battery has its position. Farther on, Pearl Plarbor hides 
impregnable armament. The entrails of the old volcano, Diamond 
Head, have been replaced with vitals of artillery and ammunition for 
action indefinitely prolonged. The adjacent sea is platted in mathe- 
matical squares, and from his lookout on the lip of the crater an 
expert aims the great mortars in the pits below. 

To man the batteries and shipyards and police every foot of the 
shore bodies of picked men from all arms of the service are on duty. 
It has been a part of my business to observe them carefully. They 
are young, clean, quiet, and a credit to the country; but the monot- 
ony* and enforced idleness of the life they lead put heavy strain upon 
the soundest character, and it is there that the liquor trade gets in 
its sneaking poisonous work among them. 

More than 75 saloons are licensed to lay for them in the one island 
of Oahu — about 150 in the group. Wholesale liquor stores are mere 
saloons in Hawaii, except two or three great firms that sell liquor 
incidentally, and bona fide wholesale. The others are dramsellers, 
and the worst of dramsellers, willing, and legally entitled, to sell any 
quantity, however small, as "bottled goods," and to operate outside 
bars. 

The Federal Government has drummed the drink out of the camps 
for the health, safety, and efficiency of the soldier. The rule is 
enforced and increasingly respected by the officers. The territorial 
authorities cooperate as to the camps outside the city and refuse to 
license man traps at the gates. But distances are short. The marine 
barracks is in the heart of the city, and the city is a cantonment of 
saloons. 

It is not worse in this respect than other license cities of its size. 
It is rather better. But the conditions that obtain make the saloons 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 23 

of Honolulu more mischievous than those that prey upon mainland 
cities of the same class. 

The island of Oahu is to all intents and purposes a naval and military 
camp, from the water to the clouds on the mountains. The rule of 
Congress should embrace it all, and the illicit liquor seller should be 
hunted out as diligently as plague rats, for the health and honor of 
the soldier and the country. 

The native Hawaiians, reduced now, by the vices and diseases of 
Christian nations, to some 40,000 in number, are as fine a race, under 
the circumstances, as the world can show. Measured by any standard 
they exhibit some virtues that would adorn the nations that are more 
advanced. They are nominally Christians. That is, they are pre- 
cisely like other Christians. But they are still the veriest barbarians 
when they take to drink. 

They have no love of money, to make them stingy. They have no 
love of power, to make them prudent. They have no loud call to 
thrift and industry. They are gentle, handsome, hospitable, peace- 
ful. But they are only ninety years removed from naked animalism. 
The liquor traffic simply murders them. 

For the sake of humanity and decency, the spirit of the interna- 
tional agreement to keep alcoholic drinks from South Sea peoples 
and the policy of our own Government, which keeps American Samoa 
safe from the saloon, ought to include Hawaii. 

But the Territory is unequal to this plain duty, though well enough 
disposed, until the sturdy, middle-class democracy arrives. It has 
not arrived, and is not yet beginning to arrive. 

Hawaii has a population of 170,000. Seventy thousand of these are 
Japanese, presenting a problem that is serious, if not dangerous. 
Their children born in Hawaii are American citizens. The time is 
not far away when they will be an important factor in politics. 

Twenty thousand are Chinese. Sixteen thousand are Portuguese. 
Seven thousand are hybrids, and 10,000 are Anglo-Saxon. A per- 
centage of the beneficiaries of Hawaiian plantations reside away from 
the islands. They receive their monthly dividends on sugar stock 
and their semiannual interest on sugar bonds, and contribute nothing 
to the actual man to man problem of good government. A few of the 
strong white men take their political duty seriously, but speaking 
broadly, the better whites avoid politics. The legislature is con- 
trolled by natives. The constabulary is native. The Territory is at 
the mercy of the liquor men, who are white, expert, unscrupulous, 
and indefatigable. 

A majority of the natives are opposed to the liquor trade. But 
they can not -cope with the liquor power either in cunning or stability. 
There is abundant sentiment and courage ; but both are undeveloped 
as to fighting power and staying power. 

Even if the native officials were more nearly adequate to deal with 
the cleverest of all public enemies, the representatives of the internal- 
revenue department of the Federal Government, while very efficient 
in that service, are — even by their very efficiency — practically 
abettors of the illicit liquor sellers. The fault is not in the officials 
but in the law, save in one particular; they do not enforce the law 
that requires the special liquor dealer's tax receipt to be posted up in 
a conspicuous place. 



24 PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 

The illicit business in the islands is not great in volume, but it is 
very serious. The government and the military and naval officers 
protect the camps on the inside, and the Territory does its best to 
cooperate, and to protect the fish market — the great gathering 
place of the natives. But the illicit liquor seller — with his federal 
tax receipt concealed — largely nullifies them all, and in the operation 
furnishes his brethren of the legitimate trade with the stock argu- 
ment for their business existence — that u prohibition does not 
prohibit.' ' 

Hawaii is purely a problem of conservation and reclamation. The 
porous lava mountains are saturated with water, like giant sponges. 
Leeward agriculture means first and always development of the 
latent moisture and its distribution by irrigation systems. Titanic 
pumps to-day are lifting water 500 feet for farming purposes. This 
means enormous capital and herculean labor. 

Leeward sociology presents precisely the same characteristics. 
The Hawaiian race, which controls the lawmaking, law-enforcing 
function in the islands, is rich in moral and political potentialities. 
The fruit of ninety years of missionary work surely abides. But the 
soil of barbarism is very porous; and the application of Christian 
ethics to democratic social tillage is still a matter of many years of 
social engineering. 

In short, the present developed police power of the Territory can 
not meet the liquor situation. It can help and is ready to help, and 
in the long run it would win. But the present need is too great to 
wait for a remotely future remedy. 

Hawaii is the capitol of American peace and the model of Ameri- 
can missions. The Federal Government ought to control, can control, 
the liquor traffic in the islands. The ports are in its hands. The 
federal officers are capable and locally unentangled. Its power is 
respected and feared. The federal judges are independent and very 
able. 

The Federal Government ought to take the matter in charge promptly 
and finally. The native people are entitled to it. The best interests 
of the army and navy demand it. All classes of helpful and honorable 
business men would favor it. And the object lesson would be famous 
throughout the world. 

Mr. Crafts. We thank you, Senators, for this courteous hearing 
and this large attendance of Senators at this busy time just before 
the holidays. 

(The committee, at 12 o'clock and 15 minutes p. m., adjourned.) 

Department of State, 

Washington, December 18, 1909. 
The honorable Chauncey M. Depew, 

Chairman Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, United 
States Senate. 
Sir : I have the honor to inclose herewith, for the information and 
consideration of your committee, a copy of a note from the Chinese 
minister at this capital forwarding a petition from the Chinese mer- 
chants of the Territory of Hawaii protesting against the passing of a 
bill which is now pending before the Congress and has for its object 
the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors 
within the Territory of Hawaii. 



PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN HAWAII. 25 

A copy of the minister's note has been sent to the chairman of the 
appropriate committee in the House of Representatives. 
I have the honor to be, sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

Alvey A. Adee, 
Acting Secretary of State. 



Imperial Chinese Legation, 

Washington, December 13, 1909. 
Sir : I have the honor to inform you that I am in receipt of a peti- 
tion from the Chinese merchants of the Territory of Hawaii respect- 
fully protesting against the passing of a bill, which is now pending 
before the Congress of the United States of America, and has for its 
object the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors within the Territory of Hawaii. It seems to me that the 
grounds on which they base their protest are • very reasonable and 
worthy of consideration. They are as follows: 

1. There is now in force and effect in Hawaii a wise and good law 
regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors; this law was passed by the 
territorial legislature. 

2. There are many Chinese residents within the Territory of 
Hawaii, and they have locally invested large sums of money in the 
establishment of wholesale and retail business for the sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors, and in the past have imported, and will continue to 
import, unless prevented therefrom, from China, for use by Chinese in 
Hawaii, large quantities of Chinese wines and liquors for local con- 
sumption and use. 

3. The Chinese locally domiciled, as when in China, daily and 
temperately use liquor of high alcoholic strength with meals as a 
refreshment, and by reason of its medicinal properties as a corrective 
and tonic. 

4. The Chinese neither generally nor nationally are addicted to the 
excessive use of intoxicating liquors, and as yet no Chinese has 
appeared upon the calendars of the police courts in the Territory 
charged with drunkenness. 

5. Strict and entire prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors 
within the Territory of Hawaii will depreciate, if not destroy, the 
investments so made by Chinese as aforesaid; seriously affect the 
permanency of the residence of the laborers as well as the merchants 
now domiciled in said Territory; materially decrease the importa- 
tion of liquor, foodstuffs, materials, and supplies from China. 

In view of the fact that Hawaii already has a wise and effective 
law, passed by the territorial legislature, for regulating the sale of 
intoxicating liquors, and that such prohibition of their sale, as what 
the bill now pending before the United States Congress purports 
to bring about, will generally impair the prosperity of the Chinese 
in the Territory of Hawaii, I venture to request you to communicate 
the contents of the protest to those in authority in Congress for their 
favorable consideration, to the end that the sale of intoxicating liquors 
within the Hawaiian Territory remains, as now, under the territorial 
authority and subject alone to its jurisdiction and control. 

Accept, sir, etc., 

Wu Ting-fang. 



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